Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Meat trade spells out threat of shortages if labour crisis is not addressed

WORRIED: Meat wholesalers are facing a labour shortage.
WORRIED: Meat wholesalers are facing a labour shortage.

Scotland’s meat wholesalers have issued their strongest warning yet of a “serious danger of collapse” in the processing and distribution network unless the labour shortage crisis is urgently addressed.

Members of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) say they currently have a labour shortfall of 10-15% in processing plants, and they are also struggling to secure any one-off requirements to collect raw materials from farms or deliver end product to retailers.

At a meeting with Scottish Government ministers, SAMW leaders said they predicted a worsening situation when demand for meat picks up later in the year.

In a statement following the meeting, SAMW said: “This is a relatively quiet time of the year, certainly as compared with the autumn and pre-Christmas period when demand can be expected to rise sharply. At that point, there is a real risk supplies will run short and gaps will begin to appear on retail shelves.

“The UK Government is responsible for ensuring there is sufficient food for the nation and the current situation with labour shortages in the meat processing and distribution network is putting that responsibility in serious danger of collapse later this year.”

Pressure

Wholesalers say even if the government acts now to address the situation, it is likely meat supplies will still be under pressure towards the end of the year as many of the missing labour-force returned to their home countries during the final weeks of the Brexit process and are not showing any signs of being willing to return.

SAMW said: “Our priority request is to that we need access to EU workers to operate our businesses this year. One option is to provide such workers with short-term visas – say for two years.

“We also need the government to include butchers, etc. on their shortage occupation list.

“We have been told many times, of course, to go out and recruit staff from the existing UK workforce.

“While we continue to do this as part of our own efforts to resolve the current crisis, members’ experience to date is that the skill sets required by meat processing companies are not currently available in the UK, certainly not widely available.

“Finally, training new staff to work in meat processing is at least an 18 to 24-month operation, a timeline which does not equate with the food needs of the country’s consumers.”

The Home Office was contacted for comment.